Silver Light
by Alimah
Summary: Leila is a clever, quirky, cheerful and rather twisted woman. Brought into the Dark Brotherhood she begins to understand the true meaning of family as well as the deceit and treachery that lies within. Rated M for language some rather violent scenes.


Alright, I'm going to get this over with now so I don't have to do this for every chapter. I do not own Oblivion or Morrowind or whatever is associated with it, they belong to Bethesda. However, I do own my character and some additions to the existing characters. (Their base are belong to them...haw haw). Enjoy :)

-Chapter One-

I hummed softly to myself as I walked down the unusually busy streets of Skingrad. My skirt billowed softly around my legs as people rushed to and fro with their things, their children being tugged along by their harrassed mothers. There was a recent hiccup in the food supply and as such the people panicked, although anyone who had their head reasonably secured on their shoulders would be just fine. There weren't that many. While they all seemed to be hoarding as much food as possible to stock their pantries, I was here on business. Well...personal business to be precise.

My name is Leila Noori, as you can probably guess I am a Breton. I don't know where my last name came from, maybe some form of elvish. I'm not quite sure who my parents are either, sadly, I was found in Andrenthis which is near the Morrowind/Cyrodil border. My "saviors" so to speak were a Dunmeri couple from House Telvanni, why they took me with them I'll never know. It doesn't really sound like Telvanni does it?

Hmm...anyways. It may be prudent to mention that I am...was the Nerevarine at one point in my life. I won't go into details for I do not wish to return to that part of my life, but let's just say I must have had a guardian angel watching over me. With a bucketfull of luck I might add. I suppose fame was the problem now that I look back, I didn't want all that. So I left, telling random passers-by that the Nerevarine had left for Akaviri and no one knows why. Obviously under disguise, how embarrassing would that be? Illusion is a lovely trade. The rumor spread like wild fire...and the Nerevarine was no more and I could begin my life.

However...things didn't _quite_ go as planned. I had briefly romped around Cyrodil for a while before deciding on Skingrad, lovely place. Beautiful buildings and a charming country-side. The people were quite friendly save for one brutish bothersome wretch of a Nord who keeps coming to the Two Sisters Lodge where I work, and he has this aggravatingly annoying habit of harrassing me while I work. Of course it's nothing serious or dangerous, but it is definitely enough to grind on my nerves. He was exceptionally clever how he went about it I must confess, with little things here and there; a coy wink, a silent kiss to the air, ogling me incessently and even going so far as to "slip" and grope my leg as I walked by! Not to mention some fairly obscene, yet careful, comments to me or about me. The _fetcher_. Every single damn time I worked _he_ was there and he did the same stupid damn thing to me, never any other waitress. I don't know why he kept hounding me, but the one thing I do know is that several months of this, I had to put an end to it. _Permanently._

I am very proud of my upbringing, growing up around Telvanni has taught me many marvelous trades and tactics. The most prominent one being: deception. Anyone who has two braincells to rub together should know not to mess with Telvanni. So yes I played his little game; shy smiles, blushes, girly giggles here and there. The only thing he didn't understand was how quickly his luck was running out.

I had made note of his schedule and carefully tracked him for the past few weeks. On the more interesting things I had "gleaned" from him, other than he likes oranges in his oatmeal and jam on his bread, was that he was leaving for a visit to the Imperial City to visit his brother. It's amazing what you can pick up if you listen...or...read their diaries. Although I never expected a big muscle-bound Nord to have a little diary to keep all his little secrets in. But then again I like stuffed animals so I can't really say anything.

This was perfect! I love plans and schemes, they're so delicious and fun to make up and even more so to enact. It was a rather simple plan to be honest, but one of those "it's so simple it just has to work" sort of plans.

I slowed down as I reached Falanu Hlaalu's shop _"All Things Alchemical"_ and went inside_._ She glanced up and smiled thinly as I glanced around before settling my gaze on her. I smiled back but there was no love or friendship here. Simply business.She was a nice woman, even if she was a necrophiliac and more importantly a Hlaalu. However, putting petty differences aside she was worth the coin. Although...to be honest, I liked her more because if any guard or other member of the authority suspected my involvement with a crime of some sort, particularly murder, she would deny any knowledge of my purchasing the ingredients to make said "poison". The mere thought of actually being caught sends chills of embarrassment down my spine. Come on, a Telvanni? Who gets caught?

However, in turn for this gracious treatment I agreed I would tell no one of her "late night activities" if you know what I'm saying. It was a fair bargain in my opinion, we both keep our mouths shut about each others hobbies. Ew.

"Hello Noori, delightful to see you again. Back for more I see?" she smiled blankly. I nodded as a 'hello' in return.

"Yes it appears I am Hlaalu, I need these..." I handed her a small piece of parchment, "if you have of course."

Alchemy is boring, interesting, dirty and gross all at the same time. It was the results that made it all worth it in the end, even the smell of harrada and lavender 'mingling'. However smells are just a hazard you deal with in the art, as well as with exploding experiments.

The potions has been grinded and mixed together. I had added the water to the silence poison and the damage endurance poison. Both were simmering for the night to reach full potency, the others would be ready in a matter of minutes.

I grinded the fennel seeds to sand, the harrada I had chopped up a little while ago had been stinking up the place so I put it in water to dull the smell. It did take the edge off of it. I carefully drained out one third of the water holding the harrada and emptied the fennel seeds into the bowl, stirring it up until it made a sickly green paste. I grimaced, poisons are complicated, they are meant to be "invisible" so to speak. Fine-tuning the project wouldn't take long. I threw in crushed lavender, to screen the smell and taste. I turned to the damage strength work in progress, it was doing fine. I stirred them up a bit and poured in a cup of milk. Smooth and easy to conceal. Lovely. These _should_ be ready to go by morning. The Nord was leaving surprisingly early for the trip, so whether this means I should be extra careful or just quick...I don't know. I'll do both.

I groaned and shifted in my bed as I slowly opened my eyes, I am terribly lazy when it comes to mornings. I stretched and yawned loudly, so very lazy...my hair was undoubtedly a mess. I cracked my toes and crawled out of bed, snapping my fingers to start a fire under the kettle, tea in the morning is always healthy.

Preparation for such a delicate operation was essential, I had put out my equipment last night before I turned in. Lovely dark trousers, padded leather boots which I have already broken in thank you very much, a shirt obviously and of course a utility belt. 'Cause where the hell else am I going to put all this junk?

I moved over to my poisons, all clearly marked of course. I scanned over them carefully, ah yes, they were doing fabulous. I stirred them up again, all acted as liquids, except the paralyze one. It was a little thick but I think it will do fine. I grabbed four small empty bottles and poured each bowl carefully into them, all the while I was grinning. Prepared schemes go a long way than some half-assed little cloak and dagger operation.

The kettle started to squeal, I went over to it and pulled it off the rack and silenced the fire. I called a cup and teabag over using a minor telekenisis spell. Ah tea with cinnamon, it's a rather plain brand but I swear it's the best. I downed the cup faster than I had meant to and nearly choked, oi. Maybe I'm a little more nervous than I thought...

Patience is also a valuable tactic to know and practice...this Nord had taken all morning and nearly all afternoon packing his things. Which wasn't actually much, which I think means he was taking back a few early morning beers. Figures. So my plan that relied on him having to leave early morning to get to Lake Rumare by late afternoon was shot, however it was not over. Just some...minor revisions. Instead he arrived close to Lake Rumare at seven thirty. This is where I wanted to catch him; I had snuck into his home in the early morning before he was awake. He seemed to have provisions, meaning snacks and more than enough beer to last a week. He had dried strips of meat laid out in a sack, obviously a treat for the road, I poisoned them. Yes it was a dangerous option, however, I was counting on previous intelligence I had gathered to know he would most likely not eat anything until he was by the lake. If he had it earlier it won't leave any marks and I can make it look like an accident, if he doesn't eat it at all I can still drown him in the lake. If everything goes according to plan...then he'll be immobilized and I can take it from there.

The good thing is he didn't kill himself in the morning, so that's one option I can strike from the list.

I followed distantly but still enough so that I could see him, only when he got close to the Lake and slowed did I speed up to catch him. I re-applied my invisibility spell as I jogged closer, watching my footing as I went. As I got closer, about twenty meters away I saw him reach into his bag and pull out the little sack of jerky. I slowed my pace to a complete stop and crouched, the sun was almost touching the horizon, sending brilliant pinks and purples stretching across the sky. I focused my gaze back on to _him_ as I inched closer, he pulled out a piece and chomped down hard, yanking back to pull off a chunk. A cold grin spread across my face, I couldn't believe this was working so perfectly! I whispered in my head, like he could hear me, the seconds until he keeled over immobile.

_Three...two...one._ Clockwork. He stiffened, a strained gurgle escaping from his lips; he tried to fight the poison but to no effect. Slowly I made my way over to him, stepping calmly, carefully, taking my time and enjoying this. The fetcher deserved it, he wasn't safe, although this was personal I justified it by telling myself I was helping other future women who happened to come across this man.

I stopped when I was in front of him, with a tiny push of my fingers I sent him tumbling to the ground. He grunted painfully as he hit the ground, his eyes flicking around, trying to find who his attacker was. I couldn't help an eerie giggle as I washed away the invisibility, his eyes flicked over to me and his eyes widened to the size of dinner plates, full of fear...lovely. He deserves no mercy. I crouched over him, tracing his jaw with my forefinger, keeping a look of feigned pity on my face. He struggled to say something but his words remained stillborn.

"Shh," I pressed a finger to his lips, smiling sweetly, "it will all be over soon." I pulled out a powerful drain strength potion, it would be enough to put this thing asleep or near to it. I pressed open his mouth and drained to potion, quickly clamping my hands over his mouth and plugging his nose so he couldn't try to spit it up. He struggled again the paralysis; I could still feel him move. Perhaps I should have made it smoother. Oh well, this will be just fine.

As soon as I saw him swallow the drink I released my grasp, within moments his eyelids fluttered and closed. Casting a feather spell and an average telekenisis spell I lifted him over to the river, he wasn't too far. Maybe a quarter of a kilometer? As I walked him over I couldn't stop the thought "what am I doing?", what _was_ I doing? Simple. Taking care of a problem. Even if I don't have any qualms about killing someone I do wonder what this says about my tolerance level. As well as my patience level.

The sun had gone halfway below the horizon when I reached to lake, I called both a chameleon spell and a slight levitation spell. I then applied an extremely heavy burden spell on the Nord and promptly released the telekenisis spell. He plunged into the water, I watched his little life light with a detect life spell as it sunk to the bottom and subsequently flickering out.

A rush came over me, I did it. I actually did it! I rushed home to Skingrad, running as far and as fast as I could. I can't believe it...what a lovely trip I had!

I never made it back to Skingrad, I collapsed halfway there, rolling on to my back, giggling the whole time. I actually pulled off a murder, me, my brilliance and the fact no one would ever know it was me. And well excecuted but based on presumption. I don't suppose I'd be so careless in the future...hehe what am I saying? Maybe this will be the only one.

But then again...

Well, my first story here on this site. I've read quite a few others and I have met some BRILLIANT authors, they are my heroes RavenStudioes and L'Ankou being two and my beta vanillathunder215 who beat my stories with her knowledge stick. Many thanks to her!

Cheers, I'll try to update as often as I can but I'm finicky with my work so it may take a little while but I WILL get it done! :D


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